About: The National Library of Ireland holds microfilm copies of over 3500 church registers from parishes in Ireland. The library has now digitised these registers as images which provide records of baptisms and marriages from the majority of Catholic parishes in Ireland and Northern Ireland up to around 1880. The available registers are not searchable by individual’s names. Instead, they are browseable by diocese, parish and date, searchable by parish and it is possible to zoom from a country map to parish level. This blog entry relates to the parish of Dunlavin in West Wicklow.

Contents: These registers cover baptisms and marriages from 1839 to 1881. This date range is indicative only and coverage may be incomplete. Please refer to the NLI site for specific coverage.

About: Tithe Applotment Books were compiled between 1823 and 1837 in an attempt to determine how much the holders of agricultural land over 1 acre should pay in taxes or tithes to the established Church of Ireland. These books list the name of the head of each relevant household outside of urban areas. A Tithe Applotment book was compiled for each Church of Ireland parish. Some of the transcribed names of people and places are not 100% accurate, but the original entries may be viewed for clarification.

About: A one-page obituary of Rev. Timothy Clifford O’Connor. He was described as being “an uncompromising opponent of Home Rule”. Outside of the political field, he appears to have been less strident and maintained good relations with people of all denominations.

ID number(s): None

WW Connection #1: Rev. T.C. O’Connor was Curate in Blessington Parish from 1872-74, before spending nearly the next 40 years as Rector of Donaghmore and Donard Parish.

Extra #3: Link to the Online Archive of Church of Ireland Gazette. As of August 2016, all issues for 1911-1923 are online. To find this particular article input the search terms “Chancellor Timothy” under the tab ‘Please Enter Your Search Below’.

Hat-Tip: To the Representative Church Body Library (RCBL) for making this issue available and freely accessibility online. To read more about this publication and to make a contribution towards the digitization of further issues, please visit the Church of Ireland blog.

Full title: Education in Wicklow: from parish schools to national schools

Creator / Author: Michael Seery

Item Type / Page count: Book / 189p

When Published: 2014

Publisher / Place of Publication:Creathach Press / Wicklow [?]

About: A meticulously researched and well-presented work which traces the history of purpose-built schoolhouses in Wicklow up to around the middle of the nineteenth-century. Written by someone who has an obvious passion both for education and for local history, it is hard to believe that a book of this size could contain so much information.

ID number(s): 9780992823306

Chapters: [Introduction] Education in Ireland – Penal Laws – The lay of the land – Sources for this study – Overview of book.
[Education in Ireland before and under the Penal Laws] Royal schools – Charter schools – Other schools.
[Landlord educators and the Wicklow Education Society] The Kildare Place Society — The Wicklow Education Society – The Fitzwilliam Estate – Arklow Barony – Talbotstown Barony – North-east Wicklow – Conclusion.
[The emergence of a National School system] The decline of the Kildare Place Society – National Schools in County Wicklow — Conclusions.
[Appendices] Extracts from the reports of the Kildare Place Society training records for Wicklow (1814-1825) — Extracts from the records of the Kildare Place Society: gratuities awarded to teachers to 1824 — Extracts from the Lord Lieutenant’s Fund for County Wicklow – Wicklow returns to the Second Report of the Commissioners of Irish Education Inquiry (abridged) – Brief biographical details of those with an interest in Wicklow education – Schools marked on Ordnance Survey of Ireland Map (1838-1840), with web link to OSI map, Google Map, Google image (where school building is still in existence) and notes on the location of school – Bibliography – Endnotes.

About: This comprehensive listing and brief descriptions of more than 500 protected structures throughout all the county is Appendix 4 of the second volume of the Wicklow County Development Plan covering the period 2010 to 2016. It covers all types of structures including private houses, country houses, rectories, churches, commercial buildings, bridges, schools, pubs, hotels, street furniture etc.

Journal Information: Journal of The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, Volume 1 Number 2 pp. 164-178

When Published: December 1931

Publisher / Place of Publication: R.S.A.I / Merrion Square, Dublin

About: Hearth Money or Chimney Money was a 17th-century tax based on the number of fireplaces in a person’s dwelling. The original returns for this levy were lost in the destruction of the Public Record Office. However some earlier transcriptions survive. This article mainly consists of a listing of the Hearth Money Roll for County Wicklow as transcribed by Mr. William Monck Mason in the 19th-century. The listing gives the names of all the parishes and townlands of which the County was then composed (except for some places missing from the original manuscript) together with the number of inhabited houses in each townland. Unfortunately, the only householder names recorded by Mr. Mason are those living in houses with more than one hearth. The author of this article has written the introduction to this listing and added footnotes as appropriate.

Parent Publication [book]: County of Wicklow: valuation of the several tenements comprising that portion of the Union of Baltinglass situate in the county above named / Richard Griffith, General Valuation Office / 106pp

About: The property tax system of 1850’s Ireland. It was the first major attempt at valuing property. This section lists householders in the Parish of Donaghmore, part of the area covered by the Poor Law Union of Baltinglass in West Wicklow.

About: The West Wicklow Rural Communities Consultation Project was established in February 2003 in order to identify the key social exclusion issues that impact on rural communities in West Wicklow. The project centred on the Donard, Glen of Imaal, Rathdangan and Kiltegan areas of west Wicklow. The project led to the establishment of a research team, who carried out extensive consultations with a range of social groups in local communities between November 2003 and March 2004.

About: A statistical return of the extent of townlands and towns, their Poor Law valuation, the number of males/females and the number of houses in County Wicklow. The number of persons and houses for 1841 are included for comparison purposes. This allows for a quick check on the effect that the Great Famine had on the demographics of West Wicklow.